Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace (Arm in Arm), 1979-81

Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace (Arm in Arm), 1979-81.

Jim Frank’s archive is largely unseen outside its original context and available here for the first time. It’s a missing link that tells a story about what it was like to be in very exclusive spaces with the most famous people in the world.
Frank’s first major gig was shooting for The Great Life — the gossip and party column that ran on the last page of The Hollywood Reporter for 26 years. His work during this period captured a unique and otherwise ‘never before seen’ view into Hollywood parties and backrooms.
The intimacy captured in Frank’s archive is a singular window on the rise and fall of the ‘New-Hollywood’ era. His photographs make you feel the room.
From 1979-81 Jim hung out at Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace in West Hollywood, a West Coast ‘Studio 54’ roller rink. This work featured in Liberty Ross’ book Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace 1979-1981 (2021) published by Idea Books.
Frank moved to People Magazine in the mid-1980s and began photographing the intimate interiors of the ‘fascinating as well as the famous’. Along with the Hollywood beat came the Oscar’s, the Golden Globes and travels profiling celebrity subjects for European magazines like Hello!
Welcome to the Jim Frank Archive.